The New Zealand AK class carriage is a type of 17

cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, people in ...

built by

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

Hillside Workshops Hillside Engineering Group is a trading division of the rail operator KiwiRail in Dunedin, New Zealand. Most of its work is related to KiwiRail, but it also does work for the marine industry in Dunedin. On 19 April 2012 KiwiRail announced it was ...

for

KiwiRail KiwiRail Holdings Limited is a New Zealand state-owned enterprise responsible for rail operations in New Zealand, and operates inter-island ferries. Trading as KiwiRail and headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand, KiwiRail is the largest rail ...

's long-distance passenger operation

The Great Journeys of New Zealand Great Journeys New Zealand is the tourism division of KiwiRail that operate its three Scenic train services ( TranzAlpine, Northern Explorer and Coastal Pacific). The new division was launched in May 2017 and replaced the former tourism bran ...

. Consisting of 11 AK saloon carriages and four AKC café carriages, supplemented by three AKL luggage vans and four AKV open-air viewing/generator vans converted from AG vans, similar to those previously used on the

Coastal Pacific The ''Coastal Pacific'' is a long-distance passenger train that runs between Picton and Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand. It is operated by The Great Journeys of New Zealand division of KiwiRail. It was called the ''TranzCoa ...

and the

TranzAlpine The TranzAlpine is a passenger train operated by The Great Journeys of New Zealand in the South Island of New Zealand over the Midland Line; often regarded to be one of the world's great train journeys for the scenery through which it passes ...

. The AK class are the first new carriages to be built in New Zealand since 1943.

Introduction

Two AK cars, one AKC car, one AKL car and an AKV car entered service on the Coastal Pacific on 2 November 2011. The class is used on the

, the

Northern Explorer The ''Northern Explorer'' is a long-distance passenger train operated by The Great Journeys of New Zealand division of KiwiRail between Auckland and Wellington in the North Island of New Zealand, along the North Island Main Trunk (NIMT). Three ...

and the

, replacing panorama 56-foot carriages. Funding of $NZ39.9 million was announced by the fifth National government in March 2009. The class features a new white livery with the KiwiRail logo. Due to passenger loadings falling on both South Island trains as a result of the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, three AK, one AKC, one AKL and one AKV were transferred to the North Island for the new three-times-a-week Auckland-Wellington Northern Explorer. In late 2018, the redistributed Coastal Pacific carriages were returned for the re-opening of the service in December 2018. As part of the re-opening of the Coastal Pacific, the Government and KiwiRail announced new NZ$40 million carriage investment including new premium carriages. KiwiRail is considering converting some of the existing AK carriages to Premium Carriages.

Design

The class was designed by

's mechanical design staff in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

. It has

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

-triggered announcements, with displays on ceiling-mounted screens and commentary at each seat in five languages: English, French, German, Japanese and

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

. It runs on newly designed air-cushioned P11 bogies. Seating was supplied by a Wellington-based manufacturer. With large panoramic windows and quarter lights in the roof, the area of glass per AK car is . To one side of each seat is a jack for headphones for the on-board commentary, and in front of each seat is a flip-down tray table. Seats facing each other in groups of four are positioned around a fixed table. Power points are provided at each seat area. Carry-on baggage can be stored overhead. File:NZ Arthurs Pass (6).jpg, AK carriages on a

service File:Eastbound TranzAlpine (cropped).jpg, AK carriages being pulled by a DX class locomotive File:Passenger Seats in AK Cabin.JPG, Seating

Support vehicles

In March 2018 it was reported that two SA carriages were being overhauled and converted into luggage vans for KiwiRail Scenic Journeys. This was later revised to three SA carriage conversions into AKS luggage vans of six SA carriages moved to Hutt Workshops. The new AKS vans are fitted with a crew compartment, luggage and bicycle racks, recycling and catering storage.

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

KiwiRail Express 19 May 2010Hillside's $40m contract 15 May 2010 Otago Daily TimesKiwiRail websiteKiwiRail Scenic websiteP11 Bogie Design Case Study
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nzr Ak Class Carriage Railway coaches of New Zealand